This morning he was sitting in his jeep outside the government hospital. He had parked under a tree beside the gate, a few steps away from the bus stop where in every 5 minutes a bus came and a hoard deboarded the bus. A few went into the hospital while others rushed towards the metro station, he saw all those people but did not focus on anyone particular. He was just seeing a group of people moving from one place to another, in the distance, an auto waited for the customers in front of the gate. He thought how he is to stand right there, wondering what would happen if an ambulance was to come, or someone who had a heart attack was rushed in through the gate. He sure was unaware that he could be the reason of someone’s death and the worst part was he might not realize that and would do the same thing again.

He knew that he was losing his focus and was instead looking at people, complete strangers, auto-wallahs who came and stopped and looked for customers followed by a bus. He looked in the rearview mirror of his jeep and saw his sweaty and a tired face, then he looked at his uniform which he didn’t get time to change for three days because this investigation was sure a different and a difficult one. He looked around, checked his dying phone and decided to step out of the car and stretch and have a cup of tea. He thought he deserved a cup now, at least.

He locked the jeep and walked and told the auto-wallah to move and not obstruct the gate. He ordered tea and a cigarette, asked for a Gold Flake and lit it, a few puffs and he realized that this was stupid of him, to smoke near the hospital. Before throwing it, he took one long puff and held the smoke in while his lungs burned. He threw and squashed the cigarette under his brown shiny shoes, he wondered how come his shoes were still so clean. He had taken a few sips when he got a call on his phone, he took the call and got to know that the suspect has left the hospital and entered the metro station. He was also asked if he saw him, he took a gulp and said ‘I think I did’, he had to lie.

He threw a fifty rupee note at the chai-wallah and ran towards the metro station. At entering the stations, he saw a long queue and started wondering that the suspect could be anywhere, he could have already boarded a train. He felt useless and irritated but tried to take control of the situation by taking deep breaths. He had heard somewhere that it helped in situations like these.

He came back to the jeep and took three long breaths before finally calling his senior on the phone and telling him that he lost him in the crowd. He turned the key and the engine came to life but he stepped out of the car and went to chai-wallah and asked him for the change before finally leaving to the police station.

Note: I might write a second part of this with a different perspective very soon. Let me know your views about this. Thanks!

Tell me
What happens when
You stick a knife
Into a man’s stomach
And he spurts blood
From his mouth
And then as life leaves him
He grabs your collar
And looks you in the eyes
With a pleading look
And questions you
Without a sound.

Do you for once
feel sad?
Were you at unease
When his soul
Questioned you
And you just stared
Into those dark pits
Which by the way
Had no tears
But only questions
And then you waited
For the light to go away
So that you could
Make a final call
And spurt the words
Job done
Would you ever think about
Those eyes
When they were
In their final moments?

-Jafar Rehman

So, I have started to write whatever I get, be it dark poetry or anything else. Tell me if you liked it.

Tell me
What happens
When the sun goes down
And moon shines
Bright in the sky
And a wolf howls
In the distance somewhere
And a gust of wind
Plays with your hair
And you feel a shiver

And you hear someone talking
In the distance
Could it be him?
Finally returning
After gathering some wood
So that you can fight this cold
And spend the night
Under the stars
And open the map
And plan for the next day
For a new adventure?

I was looking out the window and this is what it looked like. The auto-rickshaws, cars and buses passed by and I looked at all of them. I looked at the bus that went towards the capital of India and saw several faces sitting inside the bus, some were tired and sleepy, some looked out of their windows eagerly and tried to capture the details of the small city called Moradabad and some were actually sleeping and had no interest in the view outside the vehicle.

It was a matter of 30-40 minutes and the clock showed time as 11 in the night and the sound of announcements of railway station started getting more clearer and I could hear the lady announcing that a particular train will be arriving at the station on No. 2 platform in 10 minutes and the train on No. 3 platform was about to leave. By now the street was completely empty and I turned around and closed the window and sat on the sofa and breathed the humid air of the hotel room. It was time to sleep.

I think I could have done a better job if I had my camera with me but anyway I like this photograph I took. Looks like a scene from some movie, where a bad guy is standing at a train signal and waits for the train to pass. As he waits, he is smoking a cigarette or a cigar as I like to imagine. Tell me if this photograph triggers a story in your head as well. Now I could write a story on it and it would go like this-

He had committed a heinous crime and after that he rose up from the ground and kicked the body and grabbed the curtain to clean his hand. After cleaning his hands and removing the blood, he took his phone out and called someone and said, “I am coming out.”

He came out and found his friend waiting with a motorbike and they both nodded their head. He then took the motorbike from his partner and drove it away from the town and arrived at a railway crossing. As he waited for the train to pass, he took out a cigarette and lit it, hoping that it would take some of his headache away.

I hope you liked what I wrote. It would be great if you could avoid looking at the mistakes if I made some. Let me know your views. 🙂

The way you walked away
Without looking back
Without a word
And disappeared
Around the curve

I don’t remember
For how long I stood there
With so many emotions
Yet with a blank look
On my face

I wanted to scream
In the dark and silent night
Where no one would hear me
Yet I stood silent
Listening to the trees sway

I walked away from you
As far as I could
Hoping to avoid
Even the thoughts of you
Ignoring the fact that
You were in my veins

Little did I know
And little did you know
We were never meant to be
Apart.

Now one might wonder that I have an amazing (romantic) life but let me assure you that is not the case. I usually write poems out of my imagination and this one was no different. However the inspiration for this one was unusual. While coming back to home, I saw that the usual yellow street lamps were replaced with white led lamps. Combine them with a little fog and you have an amazing scene that could very well umm.. well yeah figure that out for yourself. 😉

I had been sitting on the sofa for some hours now with my laptop in front of me with no charge left. I had been without electricity for hours now and had been sitting in complete darkness. I heard someone climb the stairs and they sound seemed to stop right in front of my door, I expected a knock but it did not come and everything went silent, same as a few minutes ago. The only difference was that this time the silence wasn’t comforting and I had my doubts.

I got up from the sofa and went to the door silently, like a burglar in my own house and very careful with sound. I put my ear on the door and tried to listen and heard some sounds, someone was whispering on the phone or might be talking to himself but then someone else spoke too. By the time I was sure they had some motive and I tried to listen more carefully and pressed my ear against the door. They talked for some time with faint voices and I couldn’t make any sense of it. Then they stopped talking and everything went silent once again and one of them knocked on the door and I jumped back.

I had to draw a long breath before going towards the door again and heard another knock and I slowly undid the lock and opened the door. There stood two men, their faces not visible in the dark, then one of them stepped ahead and said – “Hey, we are your neighbors. Do you have an extra candle?”

The weather is cold and it is a moonless night. The wind is fierce tonight and I hear a wolf howl somewhere in the distance.

I am writing from the haunted house where I have been stuck for weeks now. There are no doors and I see no way out but I find food on the dining table everyday and all the other necessary things one might need.
To be honest with you I find this place nice but I would need someone with me here because it gets alone and the days seem like years.
I hear people going about in the hall when I try to sleep in my room but I never see anyone in the house.

Date – 30 Dec 2015 11:45pm

Entry 2

Little did I know that it was me all this time. I was dead and that was a normal house, there were people alive there but they couldn’t see me like I couldn’t see them.

You must wonder how did I arrive at this conclusion and I must tell you about it ……